 |
|
|
|||||
Shoppers at Uniqlo in New York City can now purchase a matcha and a cold brew alongside their new pair of work trousers. As of March 14, Uniqlos Midtown store is the first North American location of the Japanese-owned fashion brand to open a Uniqlo Coffee. The cafe, owned by Uniqlo, serves a standard beverage menu including coffee, espresso beverages, cold brew, and matcha, as well as hot chocolate and orange juice. Its located inside the store itself, with the same sleek, monochromatic branding as the retail sections. Uniqlo is one of several other everyday luxury retailerslike Muji, Aritzia, and Ralph Laurenthat have likewise opened their own branded coffee shops. Its the modern-day, status-signaling version of a Starbucks inside a Barnes & Noble; turning the store itself into a kind of third place for shoppers to gather in an attempt to earn the coveted reputation of a lifestyle brand rather than merely a clothing store. View this post on Instagram A post shared by UNIQLO USA (@uniqlousa) Why every retailer has a coffee shop now Uniqlo Coffee may be new in the U.S., but its already a staple at Uniqlo locations in Asia, including in Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Malaysia. These locations tend to have extended menus that also offer small snack foods with local touches. At the Manila global flagship store, for example, shoppers can find melon buns, hojicha gelato, strawberry mint tea, and a cookie butter cheesecake on top of the standard coffee offerings. Brands within Uniqlos niche of elevated basics have already found success in North America with starting their own coffee shops. Artizias A-OK Cafe, which serves coffee, tea, and pastries, has expanded to 11 locations in Canada and recently opened two new stores in Chicago and New York City. Ralph Laurens Ralphs Coffee can be found in multiple New York locations as well as both Europe and Asia, where it sells sweet treats alongside merch like a Ralphs-branded tumbler or a ball cap. And the Japanese retailer Muji recently opened a full-on food hall inside NYCs Chelsea Market, where a robot barista named Jarvis will bring you a black sesame latte on wheels. The coffee shop trend is just another expression of many trendy retailers desire to become known as a lifestyle brand, or a brand that transcends its actual products to encompass a whole vibe or aestheticthink Erewhon releasing a $335 sweatsuit, or Sweetgreen starting its own merch-based loyalty program. An added bonus to the physical coffee shop concept is that it plays into Gen Zs desire to gather in third places post-pandemic, a trend that formerly DTC-only brands like Chamberlain Coffee have also embraced by debuting an actual in-person shop. Market calculation aside, its a well-known fact that shopping is simply more enjoyable with an ice-cold beverage in hand (and it might even keep you browsing those aisles a bit longer.) The A-OK Cafe website spells it out pretty clearly: Don’t let snack-free shopping happen to you.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its a story that sounds almost too outrageous to be true. Deel, a $12 billion company in the HR tech space, is facing serious allegations of corporate espionage, according to a lawsuit filed by its competitor, Rippling. The lawsuitfiled earlier this month in a California courtclaims Deel orchestrated a “multi-month campaign to steal a competitors business information with help from a corporate spy.” Rippling alleges that Deel planted an employee to infiltrate its operations, targeting customers in an effort to lure them away. According to the suit, the alleged spying lasted over four months. During that time, the employee (identified in court documents only by the initials D.S.) is said to have “obsessively and systematically accessed Slack channels where he had no legitimate business interest,” conducting more than 6,000 searches. Rippling reportedly discovered the mole after setting a trap: a honeypot Slack channel filled with fake information suggesting it contained sensitive, potentially damaging details about Deel. The channel was irrelevant to the employees role in payroll operations, yet he accessed itconfirming suspicions. When confronted, the alleged spy reportedly hid in a bathroom at Ripplings Dublin office. The evidence in this case is undeniable, said Alex Spiro, legal counsel for Rippling, which is valued at $13 billion. The highest levels of Deels leadership are implicated in a brazen corporate espionage scheme, and they will be held accountable. Deel, for its part, denies all allegations. Weeks after Rippling is accused of violating sanctions law in Russia and seeding falsehoods about Deel, Rippling is trying to shift the narrative with these sensationalized claims, a spokesperson said in a statement provided to the media. We deny all legal wrongdoing and look forward to asserting our counterclaims. Regardless of the outcome, the case underscores a growing concern around insider threats and corporate espionageand raises questions about how well companies protect their sensitive information. Insider threats are a huge problem for organizations, says Alex Bomberg, chairman of Intelligent Protection International and an expert in security and counterespionage. Its really not uncommon. He adds that while insider threats typically involve disgruntled employees taking proprietary information to new employers, the level of alleged coordination in this case is rare, but still a real risk. The situation might have been avoidable with better internal controls, says Alan Woodward, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Surrey. If your documents are that sensitive, why arent they partitioned in some way? he asks. If you put something in a Slack channel and anyone has access . . . they’re going to be able to see it. Even basic file management tools like Microsoft SharePoint offer permission-based access control, he notes. Industrial espionage and stealing trade secrets is not exactly unknown, and recruiting somebody from another company isnt either, Woodward continues. But this case highlights a broader issue: Many organizations underestimate the risk posed by insider threats. Most of a companys assets walk out the door at 6 oclockbecause the knowledge lives in their heads, he says. Thats why employee satisfaction and robust internal safeguards are crucial. A lot of hacks are done because somebodyeither maliciously or inadvertentlyis compromised,” Woodward says. According to Intelligent Protections Bomberg, stronger internal security policies could have prevented the breach. Its about rule-setting, about creating a capable guardian, and making sure that one person doesnt have access to everything, he says. Thats something that appears not to have happened here.”
Category:
E-Commerce
By most accounts, it’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month for Elon Musks Teslaand it might be about to get worse. Tesla shares surged to their highest-ever peak after the 2024 election, but since mid-December, theyve been on a sharp decline. (The company lost 15% of its total value in just one day last week.) The EV brand is facing a number of headwinds: Sales have plummeted in Europe and China; the war against Chinese competitor BYD is heating up; and Tesla showrooms across the U.S. are facing an influx of protests and vandalism in response to Musks draconian cuts to the federal government. To top it off, some analysts are now warning that the increased risk of vandalism against Tesla vehicles could result in inflated insurance prices for drivers. “Kia Challenge” 2025 version According to a March 2025 analysis by Bankrate, the average cost of full-coverage car insurance for a Tesla Model 3 is $3,495 a year, compared to the national average of $2,678. To put the number in context, an Audi Q5 cost $3,023 to insure, while a Ford F-150 cost just $2,608. To be fair, car insurance rates are rising across the board, in no small part because of increased damage from climate change-induced extreme weather events. And according to a 2024 report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, EVs are typically 20% more expensive to insure than gas-powered cars, a gap that Bankrate attributes to steeper repair costs due to specialized parts. Still, Tesla vehicles tend to be pricier to insure than other EVs: In an interview with Newsweek, Insurify data journalist Matt Brannon confirmed that the Tesla Model 3, Model Y, and Model X are the most expensive EVs to insure as of February 2025. (In 2023, Tesla even launched its own insurance provider, called Tesla Insurance, as a response to the high premiumsbut that initiative came with a slate of its own problems.) Tesla insurance rates could be set to soar even higher. In the same Newsweek piece, Bankrate insurance analyst Shannon Martin explained that vandalism is one factor insurance companies consider when setting premiums. While frequent vandalism isn’t as much of a concern as high-collision rateswhich Teslas have also historically struggled withshe says it can factor into how insurance companies set their prices. A recent example of insurance company backlash against a problematic vehicle can be found in 2023’s “Kia Challenge,” where TikTok users shared a simple hack that made it easy to steal certain models of Kia and Hyundai vehicles. The trend led to multiple class-action lawsuits and caused State Farm, Allstate, and Progressive to restrict coverage of the models altogether. In an interview with WCNC Charlotte at the time, Bankrate senior analyst Ted Rossman said that the thefts were driving up available insurance rates by as much as 17%. Now, Tesla may be facing a problem thats nearing those Kia and Hyundai proportions. Vehicles at Tesla showrooms, charging stations, and privately owned cars have been burned, painted, and defaced with swastikas. Reports of vandalism against Tesla have become so frequent in recent months that President Trump threatened to call the occurrences acts of domestic terrorism and, in a transparent effort to boost the brands reputation, held what was essentially a Tesla infomercial on the White House lawn. Time will tell whether insurance companies see this trend as enough justification to raise prices or refuse coverage to Tesla owners altogether. In the meantime, this might be the push that regretful Tesla owners needed to give up on disguising their vehicles and trade them in instead.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||